


let's go, don't wait

by Murf1307



Series: 30 Day OTP Challenge: Edbett Edition [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: First Date, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-02
Updated: 2013-04-02
Packaged: 2017-12-07 05:45:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/744959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murf1307/pseuds/Murf1307
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ed and Corbett go on their first date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	let's go, don't wait

**Author's Note:**

> Day 4 of the 30 Day OTP Challenge, prompt "first date."

Ed’s not ready for this.  He is  _so_  not ready for this.

 

He’s still surprised he grew the balls to ask Corbett out, for chrissakes.  He’s not ready for the actual date, four terribly awkward, unresolved-tension-y days later.  But time and tides wait for no man, and it’s Friday night now.

He stares at his closet, half an hour before he’s supposed to pick Corbett up, completely lost.  He’s bringing Corbett to this nice little out-of-the-way Italian place, so he has to dress nice.

It’s a pity he hardly has any dressy clothes, and worse fashion sense.  It’s okay most of the time; he’s a geek and a paranormal enthusiast, and people don’t expect him to dress well.  But tonight’s different.  Tonight he’s going to be out in public at a nice place with Corbett, and Corbett’s also usually better dressed than he is.  He just wants to put his best metaphorical foot forward here, you know?

“Maggie!” he eventually calls down the hall.

“You need help?” she calls back.

God, he loves his sister.  ”Yeah.  I’m bad at this.  You remember prom, right?”

“That was a terrible mistake on everyone’s part,” Maggie said as she appeared at his doorway.  ”And you’ve been standing here in your towel for how long?”

Ed shrugs.  ”Ten minutes, maybe?”

Maggie groans.  ”You’re hopeless.  Let me fix it for you.”

She looks into his closet, and started rifling through his clothes.  She occasionally stops, holding up a shirt to appraise it before hanging it back up.  

She seems to decide she likes two or three of the shirts, and says, “Which one do you like?”

“I don’t know!  That’s the problem — what’s  _he_  going to like?”

“Well, how fast do you want the shirt to come off at the end of the night?  Because there are different versions of ‘like’ going on here.”  Maggie scrunches her nose.  ”I can’t believe you’re actually asking me this, ugh.”

Ed does not want to discuss his sex life with his sister any more than Maggie wants to discuss it with him.  ”Uh, I guess fast?”

Maggie shakes her head.  ”Go for the blue, you look good in blue.”

“Okay,” Ed says, taking the blue shirt from her and shooing her from the room.  He still isn’t ready for this, but he’s going to have to do it anyway.

He shrugs into the blue shirt and pulled on his only pair of black slacks, then pretty much runs down the stairs to the driveway.  He jumps into his car — there is no way he’s pulling up to Corbett’s place in the freaking Ghostfacers van; he wants to impress tonight, after all.

He gets there in what is probably record time, his stomach jumping around in his gut and his heart pretty much going double time.  But he gets out of the car and headed up to the door anyway, and knocks.

A moment later, Corbett opens the door, and, well, holy shit.

He looks good.  Really good.  Better than usual.

He’s wearing this pale green dress shirt and khakis, and he just, he looks  _really_ good.  Ed isn’t exactly sure if there is anything different from usual, to be honest, but maybe it’s the situation and the fact that things are…new…between them.

“Hi,” Ed says, feeling exceptionally awkward.  ”You look…wow.”

“So do you,” Corbett mumbles, flushing brightly.  ”You look nice.”

Ed grins a little — the compliment is good, and the fact that Corbett’s the one who says it is the best part.  He shifts on his feet.  ”So, um, you ready to go?”

He isn’t sure what the protocol is for this situation.  They’re grown men, the both of them, but Ed’s never taken another guy out on a date, and hardly ever took any girls out, either, if he’s going to be totally honest with the universe.

“Yeah,” Corbett replies, nodding shortly and stepping toward Ed.  Ed waits a  moment before stepping back, savoring the momentary closeness.

Corbett smiles at him, so he figures that he’s probably been caught.

They head down to the car quietly.  Eventually, Ed turns to Corbett and says, nervously, “I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to bring you flowers or something, so I, uh, erred on the side of caution and didn’t.”

Corbett laughs.  ”That’s fine.  It’s — it’s good enough that this is happening at all.”

“I just want to do this the right way, you know?  For once in my life.”  He’s never been good at people, was always horrible the few times he ever tried dating.

“You’re doing just fine,” Corbett murmurs reassuringly.  He reaches out and slips his hand into Ed’s gently.  

Ed smiles, and shrugs.  ”I just don’t want to fuck this up.”

They get in the car and head down to the restaurant.  They hold hands the whole way there, and maybe that should feel emasculating or something, but right now, it just feels right.  It’s touch, and Ed’s reasonably sure he’ll never get enough of Corbett’s touch, even though they’ve only kissed once before (though what a kiss it was — but that’s another story for another day), and they’ve only held hands a couple of times, stolen touches over the course of the week.

“Oh!” Corbett exclaims quietly when they pull into the parking lot.  ”I know this place.  I worked here in high school.”

Ed feels like he just might die of embarrassment.

“Does anyone…does anyone you knew still work there?” he asks, nervous now.  He hasn’t even really met Corbett’s parents — he can’t imagine having to deal with Corbett’s nosy ex-coworkers tonight.

“Probably the owner of the place, he’s an old family friend.”  Corbett stopped then.  ”Are you okay?”

“Nervous,” Ed admits, then parks the car.

He can do this.  He can handle it.  He doesn’t have to freak out.  It’s just going to involve being extra nice to the waitstaff and tipping generously.  There is nothing to be afraid of, and, besides, he’s a Pottermore-certified Gryffindor.  He can do this.

Corbett chuckles at him as he sets his jaw.

“What?” Ed asks.

“You look like you’re about to go on one of the cases.  It’s…sweet.”  Corbett flushes again.  ”You’re making such an effort over this, and, I…I think it’s really sweet of you.”

Ed blushes himself, then.  ”Well it’s not like I’m going to half-ass this.”

“I know, I know.  I just — no one’s ever put this much effort into dating me before.”  Corbett sounds a little sad now, and that?  Is thoroughly not okay.

“Well, they were all idiots.  Their loss is my gain.”  Ed almost bristles as he says it, but he nods firmly and turns off the car.  He gets out and moves around the front of the car to open Corbett’s door for him — something probably left over from Mom and Dad raising him right, or Granma Z constantly reminding him to do right by people.

Corbett smiles at him.  ”That it is.”

Ed takes his hand again, smiling back, and they walk into the restaurant.

It’s nice.  Ed’s been there a couple of times, and it’s still within his price range, so it seemed like the natural choice.  Of course, he hadn’t know that Corbett had worked there.

“Alan!” came the nasally Manhattan accent of a middle-aged woman as she bustled out from behind the pizza counter.  ”Sweetie, it’s been ages since you came by!  Would it kill ya to drop by every now and again, tell us how you are —”  Then, she cuts herself off, having noticed Ed by now.  ”Oh, you got y’self a new boyfriend, that explains everything, doesn’t it.”  She smiles at Ed.  ”I’m Angela, and me and my husband have known Corbett’s mother for ages.  Sorry to disturb your date before you even walk in the door.”

“No, uh, it’s fine.  I’m Ed.”  He extends his free hand and offers it to her to shake.

She takes it, and her handshake is firm.  ”Ed, welcome.  Just remember, if you treat him wrong, you’ll have us on your back.  And you do not want that — we New Yorkers can make life hell on earth for people we don’t like.”

Ed swallows.  ”I don’t think anyone needs to worry about that, ma’am.”

Corbett grins, and Angela nods, still measuring him with her gaze.  When he doesn’t back down, though, she relents, and leads them straightaway to a table.

“I’ll make sure Lenny comes out to say hello a little later, but for now, what do you boys wanna start out with?”

“I’ll, uh, I’ll just have a diet soda,” Ed responds.

Corbett orders the same, and Angela moves off pretty quickly.  Ed deflates a little, the tension spilling out of him for the moment.  That could’ve gone really, really badly, but for some reason, it didn’t.  

“You did good.  Angela likes you, and if Angela likes you, you’re golden,” Corbett reassures him.

“Good?” Ed responds, and he reaches for the bread on the table.

Corbett smiles.  ”Of course.”

Things go just fine until about the middle of dinner.  They’re talking, making each other laugh, the food is really good, and all seems well.

Then this older gentleman in a chef’s outfit comes out of the kitchen and ambles over to their table.

“Alan, boy, good to see you again!”  he says, slapping Corbett’s back.  ”Though, I have to say, I wasn’t expecting to see you here with an Irishman.”

Corbett does an actual facepalm.  ”Please stop, Lenny.  I’d like a second date this time.”

“You don’t have to worry about that, I don’t think,” Ed interjects.  

Lenny laughs.  ”I’m just kiddin’ with you, boy.  You know how we are — grew up in Brooklyn, y’ve heard the stories.  I’m bound to take a little dig if you bring in such an obviously Irish young man.”

“I know,” Corbett says, almost long-sufferingly.

Lenny moves over, slaps Ed on the back in a congratulatory manner before asking how their food is.  When they both say it’s wonderful, he leaves them alone.

Corbett is flushed and embarrassed as soon as Lenny’s out of the room.  ”Oh, God, I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.  It was kind of funny, actually,” Ed admits.  He’s not offended, or anything.

“Oh, thank God,” Corbett murmurs.  ”You’ve been much more understanding than some people have been in the past,” he says, shrugging.  ”Thank you.”

Ed nods.  ”I was serious, you know.  About wanting a second date.”

Somehow, meeting Corbett’s old employers makes him feel a little more bold, a little more at ease to say things like this.

“S-so was I,” Corbett admits.

“Good,” Ed says, grinning like mad.  ”Let’s drink to that.  I think that’s something you drink to, right?  A second date with a great guy?”

“Narcissism, Ed?”

“Far from it.  I was talking about you.”  He’s veering into sappy territory here, but he frankly doesn’t give a damn.  Because Corbett deserves to be shown and told in every possible way that he’s great.

Corbett blushes even redder.  ”Thank you.”

They banter a little more over the rest of dinner and dessert, and then it’s time to go.  Ed insists on paying the bill, but Angela and Lenny both give him dubious, almost offended looks and insist that it’s on the house.  Corbett convinces Ed to relent, and they leave.

“That was sweet of you, back there,” Corbett murmurs, sliding his hand into Ed’s again.

Ed smiles.  ”You’ve called me that a lot tonight.”

“Well, it’s true.”

“Thank you.”

They make it back to the car, and conversation subsides again as Ed drives Corbett home.  He doesn’t really want the night to end at all — they’d done so well tonight, worked together so well, and Ed doesn’t want the spell or the luck or whatever to break.

But he walks Corbett up to his door and tries to smile.  ”I, uh, I had a really great time.”

“So did I,” Corbett says back. smiling and still a little pink-cheeked.

Ed’s growing to really love that blush, to be totally honest.  ”I kind of don’t want this date to be over,” he mumbles, looking down at their shoes.  ”Really.”

“Me neither,” Corbett admits.

“Does it have to be, then?” Ed asks.

Corbett furrows his eyebrows, like he hadn’t thought of it that way before.  Then he smiles.  ”You know what?  I don’t think it does.”

“Do you want to take drive?”

“Yes,” Corbett says, quickly, like he would’ve said yes to damn near anything Ed suggested.

“Let’s go, then,” Ed replies, taking Corbett’s hand again.

They do. 


End file.
